Elevating the Malaysian Healthcare system through digitalisation

The engagement was jointly organised under the MyDIGITAL Catalytic Projects initiative and supports Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program. The MyDIGITAL Catalytic Projects initiative aims to accelerate the digital and technological transformation of Malaysia’s economy by understanding the challenges that companies face when innovating and acting as a facilitator to the right solutions.

Similarly, Cisco’s CDA program is a strategic partnership with government leaders to accelerate their national digitalisation agenda and create new value for the country, its businesses, and citizens. In Malaysia, the program focuses on digital adoption across public sector, energy sector, SMEs, and telecommunications service providers. This extends to connecting key ecosystem healthcare partners, patients and staff with transformative technologies to power inclusive care for all.

The workshop, which was attended by a total of 42 participants from five sectors, featured discussions revolving around how digital transformation and innovation can transform and modernise Malaysia’s healthcare system. The workshop gives focus on virtual healthcare, where the patient’s experience can be improved by streamlining patient communication, scheduling, consultation, and follow-up appointments. Five potential use cases in virtual healthcare have been shortlisted, namely:

I. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) II. Emergency Medical Response (patient-centred) III. Virtual palliative care IV. Enhance interoperability of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) V. Hospital-based virtual clinics

Over the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of the country’s healthcare system. Malaysia’s experience in responding to the coronavirus, as well as the need to prepare for potential future epidemics, has spurred the adoption of virtual healthcare services as the next natural step in modernising its healthcare system.

The Healthcare Sectoral workshop showcased how AI can be adapted by the sector for virtual healthcare services. AI can help gather relevant data by guiding a patient in an automated virtual triage exchange and then selectively escalating to an enterprise-scale contact centre. At that point, skilled clinicians can pick up the interaction without losing any data in the process.

The adoption of technology not only allows for a more efficient system but also makes healthcare much more accessible to those who are less mobile or unable to physically attend a consultation.

According to Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy), “Malaysia was able to weather the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic due to sound government policy and its solid healthcare system. However, there is still a need to modernise and start adopting digital technology to our healthcare systems. I am extremely encouraged by the productive and fruitful discussions during this workshop and am even more excited to see how we can take these ideas forward for our country’s benefit. We are proud to collaborate with Cisco in this very timely engagement”.

Guy Diedrich, Senior Vice President & Global Innovation Officer for Cisco said, “Technology has transformed accessibility to healthcare and has enhanced experiences throughout the entire patient care continuum. Cisco works with the world’s leading healthcare providers to deliver fundamental capabilities in collaboration, security and networking that is reimagining how we deliver care to those who need it most, quicker than ever before. Public-private partnerships have the unique ability to unlock the power of digitization through co-innovation and co-investment. We are delighted to participate in this workshop to help showcase how digitization can accelerate the evolution of Malaysia’s healthcare sector.”